| Details | | Publication Date: | 1995-11-01 |
| Size | | Height: | 9.3 in | | Width: | 6.3 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 22.4 oz |
Publisher's Note
In the 1970s a group of men and women with few ties to the circus emerged from the counterculture revolution and took to the streets, where they discovered how to entertain an audience. At a time when the Big Top was beset by shabby excess, escalating costs, and competition from movies and TV, the young performers dedicated themselves to skill and intimacy, beginning the movement Ernest Albrecht describes as the "new American circus", a reinvention of the circus as an authentic form of art. The first - and most radical - aspect of this movement was its revival of the traditions of the great one-ring shows of Europe and Russia. Focusing on artistry, not spectacle, the new American circus incorporated such allied arts as music and dance and embraced a notion of ensemble that was compatible with the communal ethic of the seventies. Working from interviews and other primary sources, Albrecht traces this history to the present (including current controversies over animal performers and efforts to secure subsidies), sketching the leading players in the new circus and profiling the shows they founded.
Industry Reviews
The author of A Ringling by Any Other Name (Scarecrow, 1989) here chronicles the development of troupes that might better be termed theater than circus. Unlike more traditional circus productions that offer a series of unrelated routines often occurring simultaneously, companies like the Cirque du Soleil, Circus Flora, and the Big Apple Circus typically combine elements of dance, music, comedy, theater, and circus to form a cohesive program that tells a complete story. Personal interviews as well as items like souvenir programs and press kits from individual circuses are among the sources used in compiling this work. An interesting account, this is more appropriate for performing arts than general collections. Carolyn M. Mulac, Chicago P.L.
Adams
In a plodding academic study, Albrecht, who teaches English at Middlesex County College in New Jersey, tells the story of four modern circuses that evolved after the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus abandoned the big top in 1956. They are the Pickle Family Circus in San Francisco, the Big Apple Circus in New York City, Cirque du Soleil in Montreal and Circus Flora in St. Louis. Each offers one-ring productions in the European style, and each operates from a different home base. Albrecht maintains that, combining elements of the counterculture of the 1960s like street performances with those of legitimate theater and dance, these four represent a new brand of circus. Describing their histories, he summarizes the trials brought by economic crises, battles with animal-rights activists and the founding of circus schools, no longer a rarity in the U.S. While Albrecht distinguishes the ``alternative circus'' from its ancestors, the presence of trapeze artists, jugglers and clowns suggests that it's the same old material wrapped in new diction. Photos. (Nov.)
Bernstein
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